How To Sell Yourself Effectively As A Virtual Assistant

When I worked for the federal government, I had a friend who used to tell me ‘fake it till you make it’. It seemed like such silly advice at the time, but I’ve carried that tidbit of advice with me and it’s helped me become the successful Virtual Assistant that I am today.

That’s why in today’s blog, I am sharing my best advice and strategies on How to Sell Yourself as a Virtual Assistant and if I can add my own piece of wisdom to all of this, it would be ‘prepare, prepare, prepare’, with preparation, you will feel more confident and it will be easier to ‘fake it till you make it’.

This post is all about How to Sell Yourself Effectively as a Virtual Assistant

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As a new Virtual Assistant, it can often feel overwhelming, meeting with potential clients and having to answer all of their questions on the spot, having to essentially sell yourself for a job you may not feel 100% comfortable doing yet, or have minimal experience in doing.

With a little bit of preparation, you can quickly win over new clients, and build the successful Virtual Assistant business of your dreams.

This post shares How to Sell Yourself Effectively as a Virtual Assistant

When you are first starting out on your Virtual Assistant journey, a great place to start building connections and finding prospective clients will be in Facebook groups. With thousands of relevant groups, and countless small and medium sized business owners looking for administrative assistant type roles, spending an hour per day prospecting in Facebook groups and promoting your VA services, is a great way to generate leads early in your business.

The competition in Facebook groups can be a little fierce, making it that much more important to put your best foot forward, and come prepared to a meeting with a potential client. Once your Virtual Assistant business is more established, word of mouth and building your online presence will become your best lead generation with potential clients coming to you instead. At this point, you’ll be the one vetting your clients to make sure they are the right fit to work with you, but until this happens, it’s important to practice selling yourself and your skills.

The good news is that becoming a successful VA is easier than you think, with a little bit of preparation, and hard work, you can make your dreams of working from home a reality.

How To Sell Yourself As A Virtual Assistant

Get Prepared Ahead of Time

I don’t know about you, but I do much better when I am prepared ahead of time for a job interview. Let’s face it, when you are first getting started on your Virtual Assistant journey, you may need to apply to hundreds of Virtual Assistant job postings in Facebook Groups before landing your first gig, and that’s ok, you will learn an infinite amount of knowledge about selling yourself and develop your skills of formulating confident answers on the spot.

But you can also leverage the Virtual Assistant Job Description to your advantage, to give you the best shot at landing the job. Oftentimes the job poster will share what type of assistant they are looking for, it’s important to take a moment to review the job posting in detail, and Google anything you may not be clear about or not know a lot about. We often dismiss a job or don’t know how to answer a question just because we aren’t familiar with that task. But it doesn’t mean we don’t have the capacity to do it!

The job poster may also share their professional website or social media profiles in the job posting. It’s important to take a moment to look over these resources so you can learn what they do, who they serve, and how you could best help them in their business. We live in an age where everyone is ‘go, go, go’ all the time. A small business owner will appreciate knowing that you took time out of your day to take a look at their website or their socials. Make sure to mention it in a fluid way during your interview!

Depending on what type of Virtual Assistant services your prospective client needs, you may also want to take some time to come up with examples that you could present during your interview. For example, if your potential client is looking for social media help, maybe you prepare a few social media captions and graphics to present them and in turn to showcase your skills.

Fake It Till You Make It

With my first few Virtual Assistant jobs, I felt like a fish out of water. I had no idea what I was doing, and didn’t know any of the popular systems or the lingo that went with them. What the heck is a funnel? Zapier? Never heard of it.

It truly felt like I was back in the Employment Insurance call center working for the Government back when my friend gave me the advice of ‘Fake it till you make it’. Thankfully with working a call centre job, the clients couldn’t see my confused face, but they could hear my voice. I got really good at acknowledging their concerns and letting them know that I would do everything I possibly could to move their files forward. This didn’t mean that I always had the answers, but I learned how to tell them in a polite manner that I would be putting them on hold for 5 to 10 minutes while I looked over their file and read over our SOPs to figure out what my next move would be.

The same goes for Virtual Assistant work.

You may not know how to do 100% of the tasks on a job posting but with a little bit of wit, determination, a few YouTube Tutorials, and reaching out to tech support, most of the time you can figure it out.

I cannot tell you how many times on my Virtual Assistant journey I have felt uncomfortable, not had all the information, and have needed to figure it out but I am extremely grateful for being uncomfortable because it’s led me to where I am today, dare I say I am really good at what I do!

Sure, there are a lot of online courses you can take to fast-track your Virtual Assistant journey, and those are great! Learning hands-on will always be one of the best ways to develop your skills, become more confident, and be able to sell yourself effectively as a Virtual Assistant.

First Impressions Matter

I absolutely love spending the day in my pajamas, I mean, does anyone else have day pajamas and night pajamas?

I knew I wasn’t the only one!

Showing up professionally dressed for an interview is a good way of letting your ideal client know that you are taking this role seriously enough to get up in the morning, get dressed, wash your face, and take the crusties out of your eyes. At the very least, you should be professionally dressed from the hips up. We’ve all seen those memes during Covid with people working in their underwear with a professional suit on the top half, I mean, I would at least wear pajamas on the bottom.

Showing up well dressed also subconsciously lets them know that you have good time management skills and are routine enough to get up every day at a consistent time, to get ready to start your day. When you own your own business, there is no one that will push for its success more than you, it’s up to you to show up every day, do quality work resulting in satisfied clients.

Oh, and don’t forget to smile! Sometimes when we are stressed we forget to take care of our face!

Prep Your Elevator Pitch

Small business owners want to know who you are, what your personality is like, and if you will mesh well with their business. Having a quick 3 to 5-minute elevator pitch on who you are, where you come from, relevant experience, and skills can be an effective icebreaker to get the conversation flowing and on the right track.

Small Businesses are like family, oftentimes small business owners want to hire someone who will fit well with their existing team. There is nothing that can bring down morale faster than negative Nancy who never has anything nice to say about anything. As a freelance Virtual Assistant working remotely, you will likely be spending a lot of time with your potential new clients over Zoom, so it helps to have personalities that work well together with similar communication styles.

And vice versa, meeting your new potential client over Zoom is a great way for you to vet this person and determine if they have realistic expectations of working together. I once had a client on a discovery call demand that I check in with them morning and night with an update on tasks completed for the day. There’s a fine line between being a contractor and an employee, while it’s reasonable for your client to want check-ins and updates, it’s not okay that they demand it happens at a specific time every day. You are a freelance contractor and not an employee.

Ask Your Questions

A great way of showing genuine interest in someone’s business is to ask questions. I love closing out interviews by asking a few relevant questions to the business owner. It shows that I’ve taken the time to think about questions to ask and that I am genuinely interested in what they have to say. It can be as simple as asking, where they envision themselves in the next 5 years and how they see their business evolving. This shows that you are committed to the long term success of their business.

What Happens Next?

Becoming a sought-after VA is easier than you think, and a great place to first build connections is via Facebook Groups and online communities but I also recommend implementing LinkedIn outreach as part of your marketing strategy when you are first starting out.

It is easy to get started building LinkedIn contacts and doing outreach a few minutes a day. It’s much easier than having a social media presence on all the various platforms. LinkedIn has been the most effective way that I have found for growing my own Virtual Assistant business, alongside Facebook Groups.

I teach you how to do all of this inside my Virtual Assistant E-Book called; Your 9-to-5 Exit Strategy. I walk you through how to set up your Virtual Assistant business in 30 days or less. I’ve broken down all of the steps in bite-sized pieces so that you can take consistent daily action to achieve your goals.

I also teach you the exact marketing strategies that I use and still use to grow my Virtual Assistant business.

Your 9-to-5 Exit Strategy- Virtual Assistant E-Book

$27.99

Your 9-to-5 Exit Strategy E-Book breaks down how to launch a thriving Virtual Assistant business in just 30 days.

Category: E-Book

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While getting prepared for a Virtual Assistant interview may seem like a lot of extra work, it’s a good idea to take the time to go through these tips. Being prepared can go a long way to nailing your very first or fifth ideal client. Facebook groups and other online communities can be competitive spaces to land clients but not impossible!

Selling yourself efficiently as a Virtual Assistant is all about making yourself stand out from the crowd, take the time to review the Virtual Assistant job description in detail, go over the client’s website and social media profiles, and if you are very determined, prepare sample work you can show that is specific for that business.

After a while, the amount of time it takes to accomplish this process will shorten significantly, especially since most admin support type jobs closely resemble each other, you will be able to recycle your answers and the content you create for multiple business owners with only slight tweaks.

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